Message In A Bottle: fun, beautifully illustrated and eye catching!
“Lion is excited about moving to a desert island, just him and his trusty guitar. But he soon starts feeling lonely and sends out… a message in a bottle, looking for a friend – just one – to strum guitar with. But Lion gets more than he imagined! Will he open his home to the new arrivals?”
When this arrived I was so excited! It even came with it’s own personalised bottle filled with sand and shells. I was so delighted with it! What a lovely surprise. I love picture books, but picture books with props are even better!
As the blurb tells you this story is all about Lion who wants to get away from the monotony and the doom and gloom of his normal life, so he moves to his desert island. After a while he starts feeling sad and lonely, so he sends out a message in a bottle to try and attract a friend, a friend who ideally plays guitar like him! He gets a surprise however when his new friends come and they play a complete assortment of instruments!
This is so beautifully illustrated and it’s not over complicated. There is some stark comparisons between the life Lion leads in the city to the life he leads on his desert island. I read it with a smile! There’s also some similarities, the beginning is echoed at the end but with Lion’s feelings totally flipped! I loved that element. Even the end papers are so starkly opposite – a snippet that made me so happy!
I loved this book! It would be so perfect to use in a classroom or even to just read to children. There are so many things you could do around this! It would be great for an Island topic or a pirate topic. You could do so many different activities around the message in a bottle, the instruments the animals play, the animals themselves and some brilliant PSHE around Lion’s feelings from start to end!
I can’t wait to take this into school, it’ll be brilliantly received by KS1 I am sure!
Thank you so much Scholastic for sending me this wonderful book about how we all need friends sometimes!
S x
